For some schools across the US, a low single-digit acceptance rate has become shorthand for prestige.
With increasingly accomplished high school students competing for limited spots at some of the nation's top universities, a 4.0 GPA may no longer be enough to stand out in a crowded applicant pool. At some elite colleges, admissions have only become more competitive in recent decades.
Harvard, for example, received 18,190 applications in 1996, as reported by the school's student newspaper. Only 10.9% of applicants were admitted, which, at the time, was the school's lowest acceptance rate on record.
For the Class of 2029, Harvard received 47,893 applications. The college admitted 2,003 students — a similar number of spots for prospective students as it had 30 years ago — for an acceptance rate of 4.2%.
Some of the hardest colleges to get into in the US are big-name schools with tens of thousands of students, while others are specialized, curated science or arts programs with only a couple of hundred students.
Business Insider looked at the most recent available data from the National Center for Education Statistics' College Navigator and identified the most selective schools in the country that admitted 10% or less of their applicants. These were then ranked from lowest to highest acceptance rate for the 2024-2025 school year.
For schools with the same acceptance rate, ties were broken by the number of applicants, with schools that received more applications ranking higher.
While the ranking includes some smaller, lesser-known colleges where selectivity is driven by small class sizes and tightly curated curricula, some schools with applicant pools or total student populations of under 100 were excluded from the list as their acceptance rates are not entirely comparable to those of more traditional four-year colleges and universities.
See the hardest schools to get into in America.
35. Stanbridge University
Location: Irvine, California
Acceptance rate: 10%
Student population: 2,928
Student-to-faculty ratio: 15 to 1
34. Claremont McKenna College
Location: Claremont, California
Acceptance rate: 10%
Student population: 1,393
Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
33. University of Southern California
Location: Los Angeles
Acceptance rate: 10%
Student population: 46,566
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1
32. The Juilliard School
Location: New York City
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 1,073
Student-to-faculty ratio: 4 to 1
31. Barnard College
Location: New York City
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 3,487
Student-to-faculty ratio: 10 to 1
30. Amherst College
Location: Amherst, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 1,914
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
29. United States Naval Academy
Location: Annapolis, Maryland
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 4,474
Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
28. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 26,793
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1
27. New York University
Location: New York City
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 56,832
Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
26. University of California—Los Angeles
Location: Los Angeles
Acceptance rate: 9%
Student population: 47,335
Student-to-faculty ratio: 20 to 1
25. Williams College
Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 8%
Student population: 2,164
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
24. Rice University
Location: Houston
Acceptance rate: 8%
Student population: 8,961
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
23. Northwestern University
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Acceptance rate: 8%
Student population: 23,856
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
22. Washington University of Science and Technology
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Acceptance rate: 7%
Student population: 1,096
Student-to-faculty ratio: 14 to 1
21. Pomona College
Location: Claremont, California
Acceptance rate: 7%
Student population: 1,700
Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1
20. Swarthmore College
Location: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Acceptance rate: 7%
Student population: 1,623
Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1
19. Bowdoin College
Location: Brunswick, Maine
Acceptance rate: 7%
Student population: 1,881
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1
18. Colby College
Location: Waterville, Maine
Acceptance rate: 7%
Student population: 2,412
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1
17. Vanderbilt University
Location: Nashville
Acceptance rate: 6%
Student population: 13,575
Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
16. Johns Hopkins University
Location: Baltimore
Acceptance rate: 6%
Student population: 30,210
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
15. Duke University
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Acceptance rate: 6%
Student population: 17,499
Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1
14. Curtis Institute of Music
Location: Philadelphia
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 161
Student-to-faculty ratio: 2 to 1
13. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 11,886
Student-to-faculty ratio: 3 to 1
12. Dartmouth College
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 6,938
Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1
11. Princeton University
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 9,137
Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1
10. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 11,956
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
9. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 29,109
Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
8. Northeastern University
Location: Boston
Acceptance rate: 5%
Student population: 32,553
Student-to-faculty ratio: 16 to 1
7. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago
Acceptance rate: 4%
Student population: 18,566
Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1
6. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 4%
Student population: 30,259
Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1
5. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Acceptance rate: 4%
Student population: 18,625
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
4. Yale University
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Acceptance rate: 4%
Student population: 15,564
Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1
3. Columbia University
Location: New York City
Acceptance rate: 4%
Student population: 35,173
Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1
2. Minerva University
Location: San Francisco
Acceptance rate: 3%
Student population: 669
Student-to-faculty ratio: 14 to 1
1. California Institute of Technology
Location: Pasadena, California
Acceptance rate: 3%
Student population: 2,430
Student-to-faculty ratio: 3 to 1
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Kristine Villarroel is a reporter on Business Insider's Editorial Partnerships team. She covers lifestyle, food, and travel for Business Insider and partners, including MSN, Apple News, and Yahoo.She has previously worked writing about music, culture, entertainment, tech, travel, and real estate. Her work has been featured on Teen Vogue and Wired. She graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in journalism. There, she worked as editor of The Independent Florida Alligator. Email Villarroel at [email protected] and follow her on X @ktnedelvalle
